White Dwarf 76 is the first White Dwarf to be released with actual Age of Sigmar product coming out. As White Dwarf 75 was more of a preview for an upcoming game, White Dwarf 76 is coming out with the Box Set. So let's take a look at issue 76.
The cover of 76 shows off the first set of Stormcast Eternal sets available to purchase. Front and center is the Lord-Celestant (unmounted) and behind him a unit of Liberators. Note the blurry terrain piece in the background? And upcoming release perhaps... The back cover has the same Eternals from the front, plus the three Retributors from the box set in a tight circle while surrounded by hordes of Bloodreavers.
The inside cover has a large shot of the two armies we know and love well already facing off. There are a lot more of them than what you'd get in a box set, but it's the same models. A small bit of text once again sets up the basics of Age of Sigmar from a story level.
The first articles are a look at the New Releases, the Liberators and Lord-Celestant. The Liberators get 4 pages and the Lord-Celestant gets 2. For the most part, they're sales pitches, with lots of shots of the models and lots of talk about what you get if you buy them. Again, there is a little lore tucked in the text call-outs, but these are much more bent on selling the models. On a plus side, you get a few nice shots of the various Stormhosts as paint on a model as opposed to just the drawings we've seen so far.
Next we get 4 pages on the Age of Sigmar big book, including a small description of what's inside and a few shots of two page spreads, but small enough you can't really read about them. After that, another 2 pages of sales pitches. The dice shakers, combat gauge and limited edition Big Book get a few paragraphs and a picture each to try to sell them.
Finally, on page 14, we have our first actual article! Codex: Apocrypha is an article that aims to explore various background elements of the game (and 40K when applicable) and our first one is about Azyrheim, The Eternal City. This is the capital of Azyr, originally a shining beacon of Sigmar's rule, but now a bastion for the refugees of all the Realms. This is a short 4-page article, explaining how Azyrheim came to be and what it is now. There are only 3 images for it, but each are painted and gorgeous, the art of AoS has yet to disappoint. There is some fun lore drops here, as a side bar talks about some of the stories the refugees have as they come into the city. There names are dropped of various Realms, races, and battles, each one begging to have more information revealed.
Next we get The Forces of Order, a look at some of the Factions that are part of the Grand Alliance of Order. This is a 7 page article, peppered with more gorgeous art and many "models in battle" shots we've seen across the board. The Stormcast Eternals get a full page about them again, as they are the premier army up to this point, but there is also a talk about The Great Alliance. This details how Sigmar originally had formed a pact with all the various important players in AoS and how both Nagash and Gorkamoka broke off, forming the Death and Destruction Alliances respectively. There is also a small mention of the Seraphon, the Lizardmen of AoS, and their role as independents through they share the same enemies as the Alliance of Order. Finally Sylvaneth gets a page, as they are the next upcoming Order army and a few models are shown off, facing units of Nurgle.
The Warscrolls section offers up two warscrolls for the Liberators and Lord-Celestant. These I'll talk about with the models themselves, but once again, a printed version of the Scrolls are made available.
After that, The Week in White Dwarf is 4 pages of random information. There's a bit on how to use the Battleplans that are in the Big Book and another sell of Lord-Celestants. There's a small paragraph about how the weapons and armor of the Eternals are made, with lore bits about the Six Smiths in the Sigmarabulum and how they combine the divine storm with ore made of Sigmarite (mined from the remnants of the World that Was). A painting article goes through the colors used to make the Hallowed Knights Stormhost (the Silver and Blue host) and a few shots of other color schemes for your Eternals. A small sidebar gives a few more bites of lore about three Realms and there's a small shot of the Khorgorath.
Finally, the last page shows off the Reader's Model of the Week, an Imperial Knight for 40K. While Impressively done, it's not related to AoS, the only page to do so.
This issue was much more a hard sell than the first. While the first one was full of lore and setting-up the initial push for AoS, this issue wants to talk about what you can buy all the more. The bits of lore are very interesting, but also very few in comparison to the first issue. Still, there is a good amount of meat there and was a good, if quick, read.
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